Hand looms are known for the at-home or private making of woven goods. The most simple type of hand loom known, however, is relatively complicated and requires that the operator have a thorough understanding of weaving principles in order to produce a usable or attractive product. One of the principal difficulties with these hand looms is setting up the warp, an operation that frequently takes as much time as does the weaving itself.
Another difficulty with such manually operated looms is that they are extremely impractical when it is only desired to produce a small swatch or piece of textile. This is due to the difficulty in setting up the loom so that it is unproductive to weave an item having a small area.